First Ever Instagram from Space is a #nofilter #selfie

The image was uploaded alongside the caption, “back on ISS, life is good,” and the appropriate hashtags #earth, #space, and #iss. He didn’t explicity hashtag the #nofilter, but I FIGURED THAT PART OUT ON MY OWN. The International Space Station has had an Instagram account for some time, but this is the first photo posted from inside the ISS. Before this, they’d only posted pictures of training and press conferences. Boring. (But also still pretty cool.) (Because they are astronauts.)

This isn’t social media’s first foray with the final frontier, though. In 2010, astronaut Timothy Creamer became the first person to tweet from space from his twitter handle @Astro_TJ. While tweeting is relatively easy for muggles with an internet connection, it’s no small task to tweet from space. This is because, if you recall, the astronauts are 250 miles above Earth and traveling at 17,300 mph. Neat!

Those of us bound to Earth’s gravitational pull (so, most of us) got another glimpse into antics aboard ISS when commander Chris Hadfield recorded his own rendition of the smash Bowie hit “Space Oddity” and became a viral sensation, racking up over 21 million views.

What do you think of all of this outer space social media? Is the ISS doing a good job of promoting #space as a #brand? What would you like to see more of from #outer #space? I would like to see a #selfie from the man (OR WOMAN!!) in the moon. Do you ever look up at the moon’s pouty face in the night sky and just wonder how his/her day was? I do.

As members of the Milky Way galaxy, do you feel traitorous every time you eat a non-Milky Way chocolate bar?

I am proud of space exploration and all, but I am disappointed with this Instagram and its corresponding hashtags. I am left, bound within the surly bonds of Earth, wondering…where was the emoji of a spaceship??

This is so innovative and fun! I think it’s a great idea that they used such a mainstream topic and theme in today’s social media society of the “selfie” and the “hashtags” to really gain attention for it.